Modernize Your Practice: How Technology Can Breathe New Life into EP with Tim White

Voiceover: Welcome to the FAST Podcast, your go-to source for Financial Advisor Strategy Talks hosted by Lara Galloway, Senior Vice President of Channel Management at White Glove. Tune in as we uncover valuable insights from industry experts, offering you actionable tips to elevate your business.

Lara Galloway: (00:00.206)

Hey guys, thanks for coming back to the FAST Podcast. I've got another great interview for you today with one of my dear friends, Tim White of Wealth .com.

Before I bring Tim in, I want to tell you just a little bit about who you're listening to today. So let me give you a background. Tim is the co -founder and chief partnership officer at Wealth .com. He is a very avid hiker and a very avid health nut and fitness nut. I love that about him. We talk about this kind of stuff.

He's a highly accomplished sales and business development fintech executive with a strong track record of managing global partnerships and cultivating strategic relationships. Tim, you've done this thing a few times with email age and some other fun startups that you've helped with. You've got an amazing team that you've worked with. You've got some great successes under your belt. And I'm really excited that you're here to talk about this with us.

One of the things I want you guys to know too is wealth .com is a resource partner for White Glove and we are doing some really fun things together. Maybe we'll get to talk about that in the podcast a little bit, but I want to just welcome you here and have you join us and share a little bit of your time with us here on the Fast Podcast.  

So Tim, thanks for being a part of this today.

Tim White:

All right, thank you so much. Really happy to be on the podcast. I've been looking forward to it. Happy New Year.  

Lara Galloway:

Happy New Year, man. Yeah, here we are. Jumping in.  

I can't believe it was just a few weeks ago that we were together in Las Vegas. That seems like almost an eternity at the market council summit.  

Tim White:

Oh my gosh. I know it does. Doesn't it? It was such a great event, and it was amazing hanging out with you. Obviously spending time with partners, industry players. It's a great event to close out the year.

Lara Galloway:

spending time with you too at the sphere.

Tim White:

Yeah, and Spend time with Bono. Yeah. Group of us. I think.

Quite a few people from the event headed over to the sphere and saw you two plays. It was awesome. Yeah. A ton of fun. And we danced, we sang. It was a great way to close out the event. Can't ask, I mean, how many events have you two as the closing act? Ive got to hand it to Brian Hamburger for making it all happen.

Lara Galloway:

Well, I heard that it was the Tim White concert, and that Bono was a featured guest.

Tim White: (02:16.494)

There is rumors.

Yeah, I karaokeed little bit too much, but yeah, we had a great time. It a lot of laughs.  

Lara Galloway:

Nice, nice. Well, that's awesome. I certainly enjoy being there with you guys. Every single time we've been at a conference together, you guys bring so many people, such a great team, so much energy. And I love it because, you know, that I think that's like, I know it's an intentional part of your brand, but it speaks volumes to the kind of company you guys have created.  

And it speaks a lot about what you're doing in the industry with financial planning and estate planning.

so, I kind of just want to talk about that a little bit today and just, you know, kind of think about some of the stuff that I've been learning from you guys, And what has been exciting for us at White Glove is, you know, we work with financial advisors and you know, initially when I first started back in 2018, I was looking for some new verticals, trying to bring in some different groups that we could sell workshops to. And I tried throwing spaghetti at the wall, some things stuck, some didn't, I made a lot of mistakes. One of the things that did fit though was working with the state planning attorneys. We thought, oh, we can bring these guys in, they're adjacent to financial planners, this will work, right? And so, we did, and we started doing that. And then we kind of just, COVID hit, and things got quiet for a bit.

But then one of our co -founders who you've met, Dean Thurman, is still practicing as a financial planner at Invest Wise and he got all excited, he's like, wait a minute, let me just think about this. Why have we as financial planners given over estate planning to the attorneys?

Because really, the estate planning attorneys execute the docs at the end. They're responsible for making everything legal, But the strategy behind estate planning is something so important to financial planners that we need to do.

So, he got all excited. He started doing estate planning workshops himself, which I thought was cool. And he started seeing great success.  

When I met you and started telling him about you, I got so excited, I'm like, listen, we've got this amazing opportunity where there's this platform, Wealth .com. This company that's partnering with financial advisors, selling solutions directly to them to make it so easy for them to bring estate planning as a service into their practice.  

And so, my question for you, Tim, is just what happened when you, you know, you've done these other companies, you've worked with some of these people before, but you saw an opportunity and you brought out this platform, Wealth .com. So, if you can just take a minute and just explain to our listeners today what problem is Wealth.com solving for the industry.

Tim White: (04:39.31)

Well, absolutely.

I mean, really fortunate just to rewind a little bit then fast forward, but we, and I say we, but myself, CEO, Rafael Larell, our executive chairman, Ray Carvalho, we work together. We have a strong relationship, friendship. We've known each other for, I think now rounding out nine years. The last venture was an absolute blast. It was so much fun; it was a success. We sold really a technology that was designed with machine learning and AI and all the buzzwords today into large financial institutions.

When we sold that company to LexisNexis for 500 million Dollars, and went through the liquidity event, life changed for everyone. Everyone within that organization impacted my life, impacted their lives, and it also converged right at the same time with COVID. So, at that time, we looked at what was available as far as estate planning.  

Obviously, you have traditional estate planning, go see an attorney, but what was available from some of the different digital products. And we realized there's a lot of opportunity for disruption using technology that really gives an individual a household full visibility that could also lean on when appropriate machine learning and AI. And we came up with this vision document for Wealth .com and that vision and document has not been really, you know, we haven't deviated from that.

The one thing is a go -to -market strategy, which we realized very early on the big influencers for estate planning was a family. And then, or it would be your financial advisor. And so, we built out an incredible team led by Danny Kemen as a co -founder. (Danny, Laura Fink, our chief product officer.) And so, we brought in advisors to build a solution for advisors, by advisors, solving those problem statements.

And so you know, we've never been, I think, distracted by the temptation of going into different verticals or direct to consumer.  

Lara Galloway: (07:01.986)

Right. Because other companies are doing that and that, you know, I can see the play there, but you guys are exclusively solving problems for the financial advisors who want to serve their clients.  

Tim White:

And honestly, Laura, it is all about focus. It's all about focus. It's marketing, it's our business development teams, but it's also our engineering teams, which, you know, to have that focus, to be able to sit there and whether it's leaning on our advisory council, our strategic advisors, our clients, our partners, you know, we're taking that direct feedback and we're going in and whether we're thinking, oh, we need to add this to our roadmap or can we change this within the advisory portal to make it that much better for that advisor experience? Or do we need to think about changes we need to make for that downstream, the client experience?

And so, I think that's what's really allowed us to carve out something that's unique here at Wealth .com and how we're serving the advisory community, It's just that pure dedication. We live it and breathe it every day.

Lara Galloway:

Well, you can't be all things to all people and certainly as a startup, you've got to be very focused on your ideal client and I think that makes a ton of sense.  

But you know, you're saying with your go -to -market strategy being focused on the financial advisor, what roadblocks are you hitting? Because not every financial advisor does estate planning. Not all of them agree to it. And I can tell you, when the light bulb went off for us at White Glove, that we needed to get financial advisors doing estate planning workshops. Because frankly, it's a blue ocean for us. There are areas where we have advisors doing social security or taxes and retirement workshops that are just saturated. I mean, they're very hungry, they're growth -minded, and they're dominating an area. We have other advisors that can't get in there. We say listen if you do an estate planning workshop, we can get you booked in five weeks ready to go. We can get you there every week, but estate planning Why would I do estate planning?

So, we have some convincing and converting to do when it comes to estate planning, I'm curious how that plays out for you guys. How are you finding that conversation going with the financial advisors you're working with and maybe who is that Perfect target for you guys?

Tim White: (09:23.822)

Well, I think one thing, the firms that are investing in tech, you're seeing it in the numbers, they're the ones that are being the most successful, right? Also, the firms that are investing in tech to attract the best of the best advisors as they build out their businesses, like they are being the most successful.

So, I think that's one component, thinking about technology, thinking about the advisor tech stack today, but also that question about estate planning.

Look at the traditional, I'm going to refer out to, you know, my trusted T and E attorney that I've known for years, that may have worked, but COVID's changed a lot of this. I mean, we're seeing that clients now are moving from state to state and to have that type of coverage, to be able to vet out that attorney network. I mean, that's just rife with challenges. So, I do think like, you know, with anything, especially when you're leaning on technology, there's early adopters and then there's the late comers, the people that are a little bit more apprehensive.

I think it's going to be very interesting, you know, for the next several years because I think the timing is now. Especially for a company like ours, because you know.

Lara Galloway:

You are having a moment right now.

Tim White:

It is the moment right now. Yeah, it absolutely is the moment, and you know, I just, I feel really blessed because we have an incredible team that's passionate about working on this, you know, working every day to build out the technology.

One thing that I'm most proud about is our very vocal partner base. And when I say partner is the advisors and firms that we're working with, they're telling the story of Wealth .com, whether they are at events, whether they're on LinkedIn. And I think that's been really amazing for us, but then just also just amazing for the space as a whole.

Lara Galloway:

Yeah. And we've got some mutual clients that are singing those praises too.

They're Loving getting the leads that we generate from the workshops, but they're saying that Wealth.com They're using as they're called actions saying come in to sit down to a personal discovery session with me Here's what we're going to go over. We're going to review your estate plan Just like that maybe give you some quick pointers if you decide we want to work together more Here's what we can do and then you've got an amazing platform where they can gather everything, they can review it make it simple.

And also, they don't have to be attorneys, right? They don't have to read billions of pages of legalese, right?  

Tim White: (11:46.894)

Absolutely. They don't have to be attorneys. I mean, one, since the inception of Wealth .com, we're always thinking about the advisor and the firms and even how we thought about designing the product and protecting the advisor even from unauthorized practice.

Lara Galloway:

Yes, right. Yes. I'm sure that's a concern for people. They're like, wait a minute, you're cutting out the attorney houses possible.  

Tim White:

Well, we are and are not, because there's a couple things. One, the technology is, you know, do it yourself. It's extremely intuitive. Clients with low skill set when it comes to technology can go and create those foundational documents on the platform with ease. There's embedded Q &A, we have layers and layers and layers of support.

In addition to that, we have the ability to consult an attorney. And so, day one, when an advisor comes to Wealth .com or a firm signs up with Wealth .com, they have access to our attorney network that's across all 50 states plus DC. So, if anyone wants to talk to a BART attorney in their state to ask a question, they can, we facilitate that.  

So, it really, you know, it's, I think achieving all that. I think back to the point that you made too is that you know, through technology, the old traditional way of referring it out to an attorney, often times that referral goes into a black hole. It's not reciprocated. They don't get it back, And then they're completely blindsided. They don't know what's going on in that plan.  

That's where Wealth .com steps in because within the advisor portal, they get full access, whether it's the visualization reports, which they can have those thoughtful reviews with the client. But also, they get key insights, and those key insights are available at a click of their finger, whether there's changes within the plan.  

That's all surfaced as well with all the major CRMs. So, they can have that access to that data, whether they're in Wealthbox or Redtail or Salesforce. And so really allowing the advisor to truly quarterback that relationship.  

Lara Galloway: (14:11.982)

Amazing. Yeah, totally amazing. And taking that heavy lifting off the advisor, I can imagine for some of the advisors we're talking to, yeah, they think I'm not an attorney. I don't have an attorney in my office, so I can't do estate planning. I can't add that. That's too hard.  

Well, you're saying, yeah, you can. The technology is going to actually streamline a whole lot of very repeatable, very standardized things. But you guys have attorneys that are in your network, everybody working together to make sure all this stuff is legal. And that the financial advisor is kind of doing education and strategy, But the documents are truly still executed by an attorney, right?  

Tim White:

Well, on the platform itself, they could create all the foundational documents. Our documents are 100% state -specific documents. So, a California document's not going to live and breathe and speak the same as a document that's in Florida. But again, within the attorney network layer that we have, if anyone wants to, after completion of the documents or any step within the process, want to talk to our attorneys, they absolutely can, which I think gives everyone a peace of mind in the platform.  

You'll be surprised how intuitive the solution is. On average, Laura, it takes 37 minutes to create those foundational revocable trust, those documents within Wealth .com, 37 minutes.

Lara Galloway:

Amazing. The value of that to a family, protecting them from probate, protecting their family from having arguments, protecting their privacy, right?  

I think there's a huge moment right now where there's an opportunity for people to, who maybe never really thought of estate planning, because it sounds like something that’s really hard, It's for old people, it's for uber wealthy, it's all this stuff.

But actually, there's so much value for just using it as part of family planning and legacy planning and life planning.  

And again, kind of going back to that moment we were talking about, again, maybe because of COVID, maybe it's just a time with the generational wealth transfer that's happening, there's a big shift where people want more from their financial advisors than just beating the market. They want more than just a financial plan.  

I'd love you just to, you know, maybe leave us with a few words about how using estate planning, using Wealth.com in your financial planning company, in your firm, how can that make a difference for the future generations?  

Tim White: (16:33.934)

Oh, I mean, I think we look at it that financial planning and estate planning really are two sides of the same coin. Right?

I think, you know, you'll see it in the data too, and I believe there was a survey of how many clients are expecting this, that are not getting it. And the data is there. As you point out, the expectations that that type of support is there, it's just, it's being underserved.  

I think that firms that are leaning into this are seeing the benefits, whether it's attracting new clients, it's retaining clients, but also, it's how they can actually get deeper within that relationship, right?  

Those key insights and truly quarterbacking it. And even with our technology today, we have firms that are saying, look, we got Gen 1 taken care of, Wealth.com, but how do we impact on their children's lives? And how do we start to build a relationship with them?

It isn't about the uber wealthy. I think estate planning, everyone thinks that, you know, we're going to be there and, you know, we’ve got thoroughbred horses and I'm driving a Maserati or a McLaren and that's the person that needs to think about estate planning. And that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Even if you think about a young family, that's maybe sending a child off to school, you know, having them set up that child with a healthcare directive, a power of attorney, a simple will, you know, there's value there.

So, I think there's so many awesome ways that our firms and our partners are looking at leveraging wealth to retain and build its pretty exciting stuff.  

Then also say there are firms that we're working with, that are trying to build the best of class advisors, right? And recruit the best-in-class advisors. One struggle firm have is that people are leaving because they don't have access to technology. So, there is some really exciting PR that's going to be hitting the airway soon of firms and movers and shakers within the industry that are really looking at wealth in a variety of different ways. And one way is just to attract talent, which is really, really exciting for us that we can be a part of that story too.

Lara Galloway: (18:55.598)

That's right. Continuing to innovate, I'm sure is not going to be a challenge for you guys. That's just kind of the way you roll, So I'm excited to see what comes.  

Well, cool. I think you've made a great case and you're helping us at White Glove because we really, like I said, we are all in for estate planning, we see so much value for our financial advisors to really enrich their firm, but really enrich the practice that they have of impacting the legacy of the people that they serve, of the families they serve.

We see so much value in them doing that through estate planning and a tool, a platform, the technology that you guys provide really makes it a no -brainer. It takes away some of that heavy lift and gives people an opportunity to talk about stuff that really matters with their family and their legacy.  

So, thank you for being that partner of ours. I'm excited for things to come in the future. I don't want to let you go though. I would love to hear you share what, I ask everybody at the end of these things. I'd love to hear what you share. Is your definition of success?

Tim White:

Wow. My definition of success, I have to say you live it every day, right? Every day that you can go to bed at night, put your head on the pillow and say, what have I accomplished? What have I done? And I look at it really in three pillars in my life.  

One, my family's most important, two is what I'm passionate about and part of that passion obviously is what we're doing here at Wealth.com. And then what am I doing as well for my health? And I think once you round those three pillars out, and if in one day you can touch both, that's a successful day.  

So, I try to achieve success in small doses, right? And enjoy the journey. And that's one thing I reflect about the previous venture, even when we exited and we sold the company Lexus Nexus, I just thought about it and I just was thinking, look it, the event needs to be as enriching as the experience.

So, it's about the relationships and friendships through that experience, which is most important. And what we're building here at Wealth.com, I’ve got to tell you, it's something special, And I'm really, really, really blessed to work with the talented team. They're across all domains. It's been absolutely just such a fun ride.

Lara Galloway: (21:13.934)

You guys are all great, And I can say that having every single time we go to a conference, you bring like 20 people from Wealth.com. You have the most people ever by far. And it's nice, It's a great thing to see you guys out in force, And I've had the fortune of meeting so many of them, And yeah, you are surrounded by a really good team.  

Tim White:

And guess what? Everybody loves you within our company, you’ve made such a profound impact. We feel that we really have a partnership in place, but You really are extension of the Wealth .com team, Laura.  

You know, just your energy is contagious and, and, um, I'm really excited about this partnership. I think we can do some really special things for the advisor community and touch a lot of lives.

Lara Galloway:

More to come soon. Yeah.

Tim White:

More to come soon. Yeah. Can't, can't reveal everything.  

Lara Galloway:

Yeah. Right.

Well, hey, Tim, thank you so much for being my guest today and for sharing your energy and your vision and all that you're up to in the world for financial planners and the families they serve. It is a pleasure.

I am looking forward to getting to hang out with you again at the next fun event.

Tim White:

I can't wait. T3?

That’s where We met. Yeah. Next conference.

We met at T3 in Tampa last year. But I'm sure we're going to have many, many conferences together this year. It's going to be a lot of.

Lara Galloway:

Yeah, the start of something good. So, there will be many more to come.

Thanks so much.

Tim White:

We have got to get you to future proof.  

Lara Galloway:

Yeah, that is a given. I'm absolutely coming to future proof.  

Tim White:

Future Proof is going to be fantastic event.  

Lara Galloway:

Are you going to sing karaoke again? Are you going to be like the guy on the stage again? Like the vocal act?

Tim White:

We'll see, we'll see. I may have Bono come up on stage this time with me, we'll see.  

Lara Galloway:

Yeah, featured guest, featured guest, awesome.

Okay, cool, well hey, thank you so much, Tim, we appreciate your time, and we'll see you guys’ next time.

Voiceover: Thanks for tuning in to the FAST Podcast with Lara Galloway. Questions or comments about the show? We'd love to hear from you. Shoot us an email at info@whiteglove.com. Also be sure to check out the show notes to find any resources we may have mentioned. As always, don't forget to hit that follow button. So, you'll never miss an episode. And once again, thank you for joining us on the FAST Podcast.

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